Apps for Metro Chicago

Sharing our work is one of the core values of the News Apps team. With every project, we ask ourselves if we can feasibly offer the base data for download, and the answer is usually yes. We also release open-source code whenever we find something that can be generalized for re-use.

We’d like to invite the community of developers participating in the Apps for Metro Chicago contest to use our data and resources however you see fit. Here’s a list of things which may be useful:

Census data: we’re part of a team that built a 2010 US Census site which also provides JSON access to the data, as well as bulk exports which help with the complexity of comparing data with the 2000 census. Illinois data hasn’t been released yet, but you can experiment with 18 other states so far, so that you’re ready when Illinois data drops.

Geographic data: we have a running instance of django-boundaryservice with locally-oriented shapefiles. This is not designed for heavy-load, so for a production project, you should plan to set up your own boundary service. We may need to retract the service if traffic is too high, but we’re happy to have you use it for building a proof-of-concept.

In general, custom layers work by providing a number of files under a root URL so that the map javascript can compute a URL for a specific tile and retrieve it. Using the Leaflet URL template syntax, the basic URL format for using any of our base layers is

You can see layers we’ve made at our map tile browser. The name in the browser control panel is the value you should use for “layer_name” in the URL format above.

Whenever we can, we’ll make layers we create for our own maps available through that browser. We’re still working out exactly how to document things, so for now, comment on this post or hit us up on Twitter (@TribApps) if you need guidance.

[…] On Wednesday, October 19, I presented a talk on using TribApps tools and libraries to a joint meetup of the Hacks/Hackers Chicago and OpenGov Chicago groups. It was roughly based on spreading information about the resources describe in my earlier blog post, Apps for Metro Chicago. […]